{"id":49267,"date":"2025-06-21T00:01:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-20T15:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=49267"},"modified":"2025-06-20T13:58:11","modified_gmt":"2025-06-20T04:58:11","slug":"digimon-story-time-stranger-took-7-8-years-to-make-fueled-by-the-madness-of-its-passionate-dev-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/digimon-story-time-stranger-took-7-8-years-to-make-fueled-by-the-madness-of-its-passionate-dev-team\/","title":{"rendered":"Digimon Story: Time Stranger took 7-8 years to make, fueled by the \u201cmadness\u201d of its passionate dev team\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Digimon Story: Time Stranger<\/strong>, launching on October 3 for PC (Steam), PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, is the series&#8217; first new standalone entry in 10 years. Although fans got an expansion for Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth in the meantime, the Digimon team wanted to put out a brand-new title much sooner. In a recent interview with <a href=\"https:\/\/game.watch.impress.co.jp\/docs\/preview\/2023044.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">GameWatch<\/a>, Digimon Story: Time Stranger producer Ryosuke Hara shared insights about the game\u2019s development period.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Digimon Story Time Stranger \u2013 Release Date Trailer\" width=\"1160\" height=\"653\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/JRCH0qPHYzo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>According to Hara, the initial idea for Time Stranger was already formed around the time the Hacker\u2019s Memory expansion came out in 2017. From there, developing the game took about 7 to 8 years, but Hara cites an unexpected cause for the prolonged dev cycle \u2013 the narrative. \u201cWe actually wanted to release it sooner, but what took the most time was fleshing out the game\u2019s setting in order to really highlight the game\u2019s central theme: \u2018the bond between humans and Digimon,\u2019 as well as building a story and world centered around the Olympos XII.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1511\" height=\"847\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1511px) 100vw, 1511px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/20250620-49267-001.jpg\" alt=\"Digimon Story: Time Stranger\" class=\"wp-image-49270\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/20250620-49267-001.jpg 1511w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/20250620-49267-001-380x213.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/20250620-49267-001-768x431.jpg 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Time Stranger\u2019s narrative and central theme are what Hara hopes players will pay attention to the most, and it\u2019s designed to be engaging for both longtime Digimon fans and newcomers to the franchise. \u201cIt\u2019s a story that can only be told through Digimon, and I think that when players finish it, they\u2019ll understand what makes Digimon so special.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That said, it\u2019s not only the story that took so long to create \u2013 Time Stranger boasts the biggest roster of Digimon in the series\u2019 history (over 450), with their respective 3D models and motions. Hara notes that while the team was able to reuse some motion data from Cyber Sleuth, they had to remake basically all of the 3D models due to the leap from the PS Vita to modern hardware. Aside from battle animations, each NPC Digimon that appears in town has unique motions, and mountable Digimon all have their own riding animations. \u201cI genuinely feel like we were able to make this game thanks to the development team\u2019s passion, or rather madness,\u201d Hara comments.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1514\" height=\"843\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1514px) 100vw, 1514px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/20250620-49267-003.jpg\" alt=\"Digimon Story: Time Stranger\" class=\"wp-image-49271\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/20250620-49267-003.jpg 1514w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/20250620-49267-003-380x212.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/20250620-49267-003-768x428.jpg 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Time Stranger\u2019s gameplay follows the series\u2019 format of exploration, monster training and turn-based battles, but with significant improvements to playability and game balance. Based on player feedback from past entries, the team has implemented a new Attachable Skill system that lets you customize your Digimon\u2019s abilities. This is meant to add a more strategic dimension to the battles and tackle the issue of specific Digimon feeling overpowered.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Digimon Story: Time Stranger launches October 3 for PC (Steam), PS5 and Xbox Series X|S,&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Digimon Story: Time Stranger producer Ryosuke Hara talks about what led to the game&#8217;s prolonged development cycle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":49272,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[64,3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-49267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-development","category-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Digimon Story: Time Stranger took 7-8 years to make, fueled by the \u201cmadness\u201d of its passionate dev team\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Digimon Story: Time Stranger producer Ryosuke Hara talks about what led to the game&#039;s prolonged development cycle.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/digimon-story-time-stranger-took-7-8-years-to-make-fueled-by-the-madness-of-its-passionate-dev-team\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Digimon Story: Time Stranger took 7-8 years to make, fueled by the \u201cmadness\u201d of its passionate dev team\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Digimon Story: Time Stranger producer Ryosuke Hara talks about what led to the game&#039;s prolonged development cycle.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/digimon-story-time-stranger-took-7-8-years-to-make-fueled-by-the-madness-of-its-passionate-dev-team\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-06-20T15:01:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/20250620-49267-header.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1511\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"847\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Amber V\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Amber V\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Digimon Story: Time Stranger took 7-8 years to make, fueled by the \u201cmadness\u201d of its passionate dev team\u00a0 - 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